Detachable chain



No. 6I7,7!6. Patehted Jan. [7, I899. H. M. CALDWELL.

DETAGHABLE GHAIN.

(Application flled Oct. 90, 1898.)

(No Modal.)

NME Srnrns ATENT .rnrcn.

HOMER M. CALDXVELL, OF \VORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

DETACHABLE CHAIN.

SPECIFIOATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 617,716, dated J anuary 17, 1899.

Application filed October 20, 1898. Serial No. 694,060. (No modal.)

T aZZ wh0m i may conccrn:

Be it known that I, HOMER M. CALDWELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Worcester, in the county of W orcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Detachable Ohain for Bicycles,

V of which the following,-together with the accompanying drawings, is a specification sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable persons skilled in the art to which this invention appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention is an improvement upon the construction and means disclosed in my proviens Letters Patent, No. 580,449, and relates to the peculiar structure and arrangement of the link-securing devices in the manner hereinafter explained, the objects being simplicity and praotical efficiency in structure and to provide a detachable chain for bicycles Which can be conveniently assembled and readily taken apart by any person without the aid of toolsa chain that is neat in appearance and which can be manufactured With facility and at comparatively small expense.

To this end myimprovement consists in providing in a chain composed of block links, side link-plates, and pivot-pins 01: the character described a locking device consistin g of a narrow oblong loop or ellipse made from watch-spring wire or fiat tempered shoot metal and having semicircular end portions that embrace the grooved necks of the two pivot-pins adjacent to the exterior surface of the side link-plate, the metal at one end of said loop being severed t0 permit of its being sprung onto and from the grooved neck of the pivot-pins, as shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side view of so much of a bicycle-drain as will illustrate nny invention. Fig. 2 is a top view of the links, on enlarged scale, With a portion shown in section. Fig. 3 is a sectional view through the necks of the pivot-pins. Fig. 4 shows side, edge, and end views of my elliptical locking device and Fig. 5 is a side view of one of the pivot-pins.

In the construction of this improved chain the side link-plates A and A are made of fiat bars or punched from sheet metal in the usual or well-known form. The center links or blocks 13 are also of well-known kind, With holes b through their ends. These links are united With the side links by pivots or binging-pins O, that pass transversely through the openings in the blocks and side links, substantially as illustrated and as employed in my previouslynoted Letters Patent. At one end the pins 0 are provided with a shoulder a, and the two pins are both firmly riveted at 6 into the side link-plate A. At their other ends the pins are fitted With a neck or narrow circumferential groove d, leaving a head portion 0 beyond said groove. The position of the groove corresponds with the exterior of the side plate A, and the ends of said pivotpins are adapted to pass through and to removably fit within the openings in said side plate-link A, as heretof0re practiced.

D indicates the improved locking device, which is the essential constituent of my present invention. It consists of an oblong elliptical eye plate or loop having narrow longitudinal sides 2 and rounded or semicireular ends 3 and With an opening 4 through its central part, said loop being of a dimension that will embrace the two pivot-pins 0, the rounded ends 3 engagingin theirneck-grooves d. This locking device is preferably punched out from a plate of thin steel or equivalent shoot metal hardened and tempered or out from fiat-rolled watch-spring wire, thus forming a fiat, highly-resilient, double-end loop, such as separately shown in Fig. 4.

At one end of the loop D its metal is broken or severed, as at 5, bymeans of suitable shearing-dies, so that the sides 2 can spring apart sufficiently t0 permit of the locking device being passed'over the head 0' of the pins 0.

In assembling the chain the pivot-pins,fixed in the side link A, are first passed through the blocks B. The side link A is then placed in position and the locking device sprung onto the necks of the pins by spreading its severed end, as indicated at m, Figs. 1 and 3, first passing it onto one pin and then sliding it along and springing it onto the other, as shown, the thin fiat elliptical loop lying closely adjacent to the exterior side of the plate A. Vhen closed by the resilient action of the metal, the line ofseverance 5 is brought and held firmly together, so the joint-lino is scarcely perceptible to the eye, and its ends offer no point or projection that would be liable 130 catch or interfere With the cloth when Wiping off the ohain. These elliptical looking deviees are appled to eaoh pair of links throughout the chan, produoing at comparatively small expense a superior detaohable chan that oan be readily assemblod in manufacture or taken apart and put together by any bicycle-rider when desired wiohont tools or simply by the use of his fingers and thumbnail.

Vhat I daim as of my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In eombination with a removable side 1ink-plate and the ciroumferenoially-grooved pivot-pins in a bioyole-chain, the described 1inketainer or looking device, consisting of an oblong or elliptieal 100p formed of thin fiat spring metal, having semiorcnlar and portions adapted for engaging the ncks of two pivot-pins, sad loop severed at one end to permit the spreading of its side portions and resilient o1osure thereof, for the puipoSe set forth.

2. A detachable chain for bicycles, comprisng the center link-blocks,the side link-plates, and connecting pivot-pins, said pivot-pins permanenoly secured in one of the side linkplates, and having cireu mferenbial grooves around their opposite ends; and a linklockng device for each pair of links, said dovee conssbing of an oblong open-centered 100p formed of resi1ient metal, and havingrounded ends, broken or severed at one end, said 100p embraon g the two pivotpins and sprung nto their grooves at the exterior of the removable side link-plate, as herenbefore set forth.

XVit-ness my hand this 18th day of October, 1808.

HOMER M. CALDWELL.

\Vitnessesz CHAS. H. BURLEIGH, CHARLES M. HARRINGTON. 

